Guitar Hero II

During our recent trip across the country, the Albertellis and I often had conversations which went a little something like this:

Them: We have to remember to get a from Fry’s after we arrive.

Me: Hey, and while you’re there you can pick up a copy of Guitar Hero II so I can come over and play it!

I arrived at their house this past Monday and was greeted by two little guitars sitting on the coffee table. Guitar Hero! Dude, I’m

SO gonna shred! OK, so in actuality I suck at the game but I get full points for enthusiasm.

We spent a fair chunk of time playing that evening. Megan was far better at it than I was (it’s theorized that her years of experience with piano and violin help a lot; my eighteen years of trumpet? not so much help), but I got a little better as I played more.

Eventually I had to head out to start the long trek home. Guy starts unplugging the guitars to put them away…or so I thought. Instead he packed them back into their boxes and handed them to me, along with the copy of the game. “We got these for you for helping us move!” “But…but…I don’t have a PS2.” “Take the guitars. We got them for you.” “Yes, and they’re great and it’s great and thanks. But…but…” “Don’t make me give you my PS2 as well.” “Um, OK, I guess I can check Craigslist.”

Craigslist, as it turns out, was not particularly helpful. Nor was eBay. By the time I’d figured this out I was helplessly ensnared by a need for instant gratification. Waiting a day or more was no longer an option. I had a quest and nothing was going to stand in my way.

As is often the case in situations like this, throwing money at the problem will lead to an effective solution. In practice this means that I went to Target at lunch and picked up a shiny new PS2 and memory card. Then I left work a little early^*. It was going to take some time to reorganize my entertainment center, after all.

Turns out it didn’t take me very long at all. And the new slim design of the PS2 fits in nicely with the rest of my gear. Furthermore the guitars are wireless, so I didn’t have to worry about yet more wires snaking across the floor. Brilliant!

I played until my wrist couldn’t take it any more (about three hours). A lot of that time was spent in the practice mode, running over licks at slower speeds until I got them under my fingers. Once a song was polished enough I’d hand it over to my band, Atheist Tooth Faerie (“she doesn’t believe in YOU”), for it to take on the road. In that time I only made it through two songs. My wrist finally gave up the ghost in the middle of practicing ‘Surrender’ and I was forced to put down my new toy for a while.

So now that I have a PS2 the next question is this: Whom do I have to help move so I can score a copy of Katamari Damacy?

^* Yeah, I left early to play a video game. Whatever. It was only thirty minutes early and I made up for it later that evening by doing 1.5 hours of online training on some software we use at the office.